title: Alpha-band rhythm modulation under the condition of subliminal face presentation: MEG study.
abstract: The human brain has two streams to process visual information: a dorsal stream and a ventral stream. Negative potential N170 or its magnetic counterpart M170 is known as the face-specific signal originating from the ventral stream. It is possible to present a visual image unconsciously by using continuous flash suppression (CFS), which is a visual masking technique adopting binocular rivalry. In this work, magnetoencephalograms were recorded during presentation of the three invisible images: face images, which are processed by the ventral stream; tool images, which could be processed by the dorsal stream, and a blank image. Alpha-band activities detected by sensors that are sensitive to M170 were compared. The alpha-band rhythm was suppressed more during presentation of face images than during presentation of the blank image (p=.028). The suppression remained for about 1 s after ending presentations. However, no significant difference was observed between tool and other images. These results suggest that alpha-band rhythm can be modulated also by unconscious visual images.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakuraba
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yokosawa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000513:Alpha Rhythm; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014796:Visual Perception; D058067:Wavelet Analysis